Unforeseen
by luckbringer
Summary: Another enemy has been outrun and the Doctor is prepared to relax with Rose...what happens next is something he could never have anticipated. AU. Rated a VERY strong "T" for romance and one other graphic event.


**Basically, this idea popped into my head and refused to leave. It's a "what-if", and nothing more.**

The Doctor and Rose smiled at each other, breathless. They had just dashed into the TARDIS to escape a deadly planet teeming with strange creatures and a dangerous atmosphere. Now that they were back in the safety of the time vortex, the Doctor felt himself relax for the first time in days. He plopped himself down on the console chair and rolled his head back, sighing in contentment.

But he was distracted. Here he was, lounging about, wondering where to go next, and Rose Tyler had yet to move from her position on the ramp. The Doctor tried talking to her; maybe that would draw her out of her shell. "Of all my years as a traveler through space and time I have never had to run from creatures that look like that!" he said, a grin spilling out across his face, "Did you see how many noses they had? I counted 128 before we were halfway across the plateau. Of course, being an interplanetary species I wouldn't be surprised if they had even more noses hidden underneath their big robes. Can you imagine, smelling yourself all day, every day? I once went to a similar planet, where the inhabitants had two faces, one on the top of their head and one, well…let's just say it most certainly was not anywhere near their head..."

His ramble dwindled off on its own, as he was accustomed to being cut off by a snarky comment from Rose around this point. But there was only silence on her end. "Rose…?" the Doctor ventured, raising his head to make sure she was still there. She was, but Rose wasn't looking at him. She was still hunched over, one hand on her knee and the other gripping the metal bar lining the ramp. The Doctor sat up fully, now worried. "Rose? Rose, are you alright?"

It took too many seconds for her to finally respond. Then Rose stood up slowly and looked the Doctor right in the eye.

The Doctor's breath hitched. The look on Rose's face…he had seen it before. Back on New Earth, when Cassandra had invaded Rose's body, Rose had had that look plastered on her face when she had kissed him. The Doctor couldn't deny that such a…passionate look on Rose excited him, but it also gave him a certain level of uneasiness. Yes, his relationship with Rose was becoming more personal with each adventure, and he undoubtedly had strong feelings for this woman, but Cassandra wasn't Rose. Rose Tyler would never look at him like she was looking at him now, flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes, plump red lips slightly parted…_blimey_, what did she think she was doing?

When she did answer, her voice had undeniably dropped in pitch. "Doctor," Rose said, her unblinking hazel eyes staring into the Doctor's brown ones. Hearing his name spoken with such passion set his entire body aflame (despite having a superior Time Lord biology he was still a _man_), and filled his mind with dread. His Rose didn't sound like that.

The last time the Doctor had hesitated in revealing a spirit possessing his companion he had ended up trapped in the bottom of a hospital. This time he would confront the possessor outright. "I demand to speak to the species that has taken over this human," he said as he stood.

Rose tilted her head and smiled slightly. She replied, "What? Doctor, no alien species has taken over my body or my mind. Does it really surprise you that I have feelings for you? Feelings that are far more intense than any friendship?"

"Uh, well," The Doctor shoved his trembling hands in his suit pockets. "It's just not like you to be this…forward."

She laughed then, high and musical. Suddenly she was Rose again, making the world just a little bit brighter with each smile or laugh. "That's because I never expected you to return my feelings," she said, dropping her eyes demurely, "You're so distant all the time. Thinking grand thoughts in your head as you take me on all these wild and crazy adventures." She looked up at him again, her eyes shining much less now. "But then, as we were running, I realized: I can spend my whole life just waiting for the man I love to love me in return. Or, I can let him know exactly how I feel, and go from there." She stepped towards him.

Oh, this was happening much faster than the Doctor had anticipated. Suddenly a "wild and crazy adventure" sounded like a perfect idea. "Have you heard of the planet Groveling Iris?" the Doctor piped up, clapping his hands together. He looked like his usual bouncy self, but he was really using his excitement as an excuse to circle the TARDIS controls and fiddle with them aimlessly. This allowed the Doctor to keep the TARDIS console in between him and the fast-approaching Rose. "It's this tiny planet that orbits one of the biggest suns in the Juniper galaxy, and has an average temperature of 38 degrees Celsius! It's only inhabitable because it has such an intense pressure that water forms overnight. The people there have made it quite the summer getaway. Of course, that's what it was when I went there but that could have changed. We could see the Irisites! They're always worth a laugh. And I mean that very literally because they are the best comedians in the universe. Got my charming personality from them, after I managed to teach them a few tricks. OR we could—"

"Doctor." Somehow Rose had managed to sneak around the Doctor's semi-effective barricade and had placed a hand on his arm to stop his tirade. Reluctantly the Doctor looked down into his companion's eyes, and was utterly baffled by what he saw there. It was love, flowing from her like a river through a broken dam. And he was afraid of it, because how could she love him? After the Time War, after what he had to do to end it? The Doctor went to open his mouth in protest, but Rose shushed him quickly with a finger to his lips.

"Doctor," Rose repeated, less forcefully this time. Her finger left his lips and traced his sharp cheekbones, and the Doctor could barely contain his hum of pleasure. "I know you're going to say that you're not worth it. That you can't be loved because of the Time War, or that you can't let yourself love me because of my short life span. But I love you." The Doctor's ears rang at those words, but in a pleasant way. "And for whatever time we have left together, I want to spend it that way: together. In any and every way possible."

The Doctor seemed to have finally lost the ability to speak. After all of his fantasies, after convincing himself that this could and would never be, it was happening! How could he have doubted that Rose was not herself? But there was one thing that he had to make sure she knew. "Rose," he said urgently, "I…I don't know if I'll ever be able to say it…"

"Then don't," Rose said, cutting him off, "I'll know." She took his hand in both of hers and pressed his palm to her chest, right above her single, beating heart. It was the sweetest rhythm he had ever felt in his life. "In here."

The Doctor nodded, and before he could fully react Rose was pressing her lips to his, using his hand to pull him in closer. He didn't resist; finally the Doctor let himself encircle Rose with his arms and hold her as close as was physically possible. His hands roamed her back as his lips explored the wonders of her mouth, opening his mouth to Rose's tongue as they sank into a natural rhythm. Somehow Rose had ended up pushing the Doctor back onto the TARDIS seat and she sat on top of him, their kiss shifting back and forth between slow and luxurious, and lunging and desperate.

Rose pulled back a little then, placing just enough space between them so they could get much-needed air back in their lungs. But the Doctor continued to peck her cheeks, eyes, jaw, and lips with kisses, eyes squeezed blissfully shut as he savored the taste of her skin. As he demonstrated to Rose just how much he loved her, using physical contact in the place of words, the Doctor failed to notice that Rose's attention was otherwise diverted.

Suddenly the Doctor felt excruciating pain in the right side of his chest. His eyes flew open and he watched, horrified, as Rose lifted the knife she had in her hands and stabbed him in the chest again, harder this time. The Doctor screamed and twisted in agony as he felt the blade pierce his right heart. Rose…how could she…this couldn't be happening…the Doctor couldn't think of anything except for the fact that the warm liquid running down his chest was his life blood.

Rose wrenched the knife out of the Doctor just as his golden regeneration energy began to appear, winding around the Time Lord's entire body as it attempted to repair the lethal damage. The glow had nearly reached its peak when Rose stabbed her knife into the other side of the Doctor's chest, this time shoving it in so deep that it went clean through his left heart and out his back. Only then did Rose Tyler stand and take a step back from the Doctor, leaving the knife in his chest.

The pain was tearing the Doctor's mind apart. He wondered if having an arm ripped off hurt this much. But the pain he felt was only amplified by the simple fact that he was dying. He had been stabbed during his regeneration cycle, just before the burst of energy that would not only heal him, but change his appearance as well. There would be no help from his superior Time Lord biology now; he would be dead in minutes, if not seconds. Eleven regenerations, so many regrets, and it would end like this…

And Rose…how could Rose have done this? Not her, not the woman he…no, no, it couldn't have been her. She must have been possessed and he had been too thick to see it. The atmosphere…could it have had some effect on Rose? Did it corrupt her mind? He should have ignored the wild impulses of his heart and have had her scanned from head to toe. The Doctor was in too much pain to even attempt to extract the knife from his chest, so he risked opening his eyes. There was Rose, covered in his blood…and she was smiling. His pleading eyes did nothing to diminish the unnatural sparkle in hers.

Maybe…if he said her name…she would snap out…of it…His thoughts were becoming sluggish while his vision blackened around the edges. The pain coated his thoughts, silencing them forever. He could feel every part of his body losing blood, and would have been able to document which part of his mind shut down with each passing second. This was it…he was dying…because of…Rose…Bad Wolf…not now…not like this…

_…I don't want to—_

And with a final, gasping breath, the Doctor slumped to the floor, dead.

Everything happened at once after that. The TARDIS heralded the passing of the last Time Lord, the last child of Gallifrey, with her ominous cloister bell, and then the entire ship shook with tremors. Flames burst from the coral walls and sparks flew from the console, disrupting the ship's passage through the time vortex. Without a Time Lord, the TARDIS knew she was incapable of being piloted. She was following standard procedure: shut down all systems and destroy the vessel.

Rose Tyler had been standing in front of the Doctor's body, expression passive and unmoved, but the tremor knocked her off her feet and she slammed her head into the floor grating. When she dragged herself back to standing, her eyes were back to their original sheen; the spirit, or whatever had been possessing Rose's body, was gone.

"Doctor…?" She mumbled. And then everything came at her in a flash of consciousness: sparks and explosions, inside the TARIDS. A congested feeling in her head, as if someone or something had recently been inside. Blood, covering her front and glistening in the flames. But she wasn't in pain…there were no wounds she could see…and the Doctor, where was he—

There. She saw him, on the ground, unmoving. Rose emitted a strangled gasp as the image of the Doctor's mangled body was forever seared into her mind. She could see the blade of a knife sticking out of the Doctor's back. But who could have done that? There was no one else—no. No, no, no, Rose refused to believe it. But the evidence was there: the blood on her, it was his. Rose felt bile rise in her throat and she cried out, "Doc—"

And the TARDIS exploded, ripping itself to pieces as all of Time streamed out from its core.


End file.
